I know we had nothing up front, but Odsonne Edouard has looked more of a passenger in some games this season than Patryk Klimala and Moi Elyounoussi this afternoon. The game was lost elsewhere.
Newco’s shape allowed them to dominate space whenever we had possession. They were able to swiftly double up on Jeremie Frimpong and Diego Laxalt when the ball went wide, while they were compact enough in the middle of the field to keep Celtic from penetrating their final third.
Games are won and lost on mistakes and yet again we are talking about the defensive line at set pieces. Connor Goldson’s ploy of standing offsite in the hope that a defender would break the line and play him on, was not subtle, but it was effective. It was an excellent cross from the free kick (which wasn’t a free kick, but no excuses), Duffy was an enabler and Valarie Barkas could have done better. Questions remain for both.
Culpability was less clear at the second goal, which was well worked. With so many Celtic players in the box, you would expect one to get in the way of the drilled cross, but it fell to Goldson; teams who create chances get these breaks. It was a deserved goal (again, no excuses, but the handball!).
The last time we dominated Newco was two years ago in a 1-0 win at Celtic Park when Olivier Ntcham controlled the game and scored the winner. Stephen Gerrard learned from that day as Olivier has not had a sniff against them since.
Being ineffective up front and shaky at the back are worries enough, but the biggest concern is that we were unable to do anything to change the flow of the game. An inability to control the any part of the game is more worrying than poor defending or not attacking. It is more worrying than the result.
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What follows is the board manages this crisis, a senior player has said there are internal issues to be fixed, the club and squad wont function until it does and it will involve the removal of the internal issues or the people causing these, PL has said nothing this season about anything , why, we need direction and plans, blind faith wll not do it.
CLASHCITYBHOY on 18TH OCTOBER 2020 12:25 PM
‘Saw some comments about DD and PL not caring if we win the league.
I am lukewarm on both – they have done some good things, but DD is all about his investment and PL is myopic in his vision.
However, I think both are smart enough to realise what happens if we lose this season’s league’
####
What if they are a bit smarter than you’ve allowed for?
What if they’ve concluded that ten in a row would kill the hun, another liquidation which this time couldn’t be ignored or glossed over? Actual, final, irrevocable death.
What if they have factored in to their calculations the possibility of another season without fans?
Another season without fans, and no huns, so no ‘Old Firm’ rivalry (aka sectarian bogotry) to provide interest.
How many Celtic fans would be paying the price of a season book to watch games on TV in that scenario?
I agree that the board want to make money and surely the spin offs in winning the ten would be massive. ten in a row bed sheets/DVD’s etc . However, in winning the ten there is a real danger that the hun would cease to be or at least cease to be any sort of threat. This is not good for the long term business plan which is massively based around the hun being viable challengers to us, box office stuff. That’s why I really don’t think the absentee landlord or Pedro would lose any sleep over our unthinkable in not winning the league this year.
ERNIE LYNCH on 18TH OCTOBER 2020 12:52 PM
Ernie, I posted my comment without seeing yours, honestly!
Who was the guy (not MCallister) in the huns dugout giving advice to Gerard yesterday?
We are 4 points behind with a game in hand. But if we are successful in the Scottish Cup semi it’s likely that we will have 3 games in hand by the time we next play Sevco. I think it’s going to be quite a while before we can be confident of being top of the league. We really could do with them dropping a couple of points soon, if only to protect the position should the season get called early. But with their next league fixtures being Livi(H), Killia(A), Hamilton(H) Aberdeen(H), Ross County(A), Dundee Utd(A) I can’t really see it.
CQNPOTY@GMAIL.COM
Beale
Gerrybhoy
I don’t know. Isn’t Tommy Wright available ;)
Seriously there are probably good people around if you look beyond the UK. After the Ferencvaros debacle I posted a link to a BBC article on Reading’s new manager. He had playing experience in Serbia, Russia, Germany and Spain, had coached Serbia’s youth teams at three different age levels and had coached in the US league. It’s early days but Reading are joint top of the Championship after five games, having just avoided relegation last season.
JB
What makes you confident Celtic will win every game, they could drop points at Killie and against Aberdeen but I dont think we will win every game because we have no threat from the middle of the pitch wingers or wing backs need to create opportunities and teams every team knows it.
Fans come on here saying we have better players than Newco and we should beat them ,well to be honest I haven’t seen evidence of this against Newco we look a tired lot against them,They Newco are nothing special but Celtic Tactics and some players give them enough rope to sus us out and take advantage of some big tactical decisions with our Coaches,Complancey is Dangerous,,and watching Preston North End ,why was Scott Sinclair be allowed to move on,and there manager Alec Neil is not a bad coach.
ERNIE LYNCH @ 12:55 PM,
That is Michael Beale… a very, very sharp cookie!!
Hail Hail
Dessybhoy – I’m not confident at all and apologies if my previous post sounded as if I was. next Sunday’s trip to Pittodrie for a high noon kick off will be a difficult game. But if we were to play well on Thursday evening against AC Milan maybe that would be the wee boost we need. Aff oot…
The comments on DD only in it for the money is ridiculous. DD wealth is incomprehensible .
His worth is in the region of 2 billion dollars.
To put that in context, if he gave away £1 every second it would take over 60 years. If you did the same with a million, it would take 25 days.
Celtic is not a cash cow for DD. its more a bauble.
Ernie,
There’s a flaw in your thinking. Sevco will not fold if they fail to win the league this year.
Their football operation has been built on what is considered to be good practice over the past two years. The core principles is pretty sound, albeit they now need to see transfer fee income following the continued investment in value signings. In this respect, they are doing better than Celtic in acquiring young talent that contributes to the team.
Their results in Europe indicate that this is a decent team.
Defoe, Davis, McGregor won’t be there next season. The wage bill will fall accordingly, (they trust) player trading will start to make a significant contribution, and the business model will balance. Reliance on shareholder funding will – they hope – end, particularly if they can get out of the mess that is their merchandising operation.
Their future isn’t binary on winning the league this season. It actually makes no damned difference to the business, unless you expect them to have bet everything on qualifying for next season’s Champions League. Which of course they haven’t.
Not feeling any better this morning, after yesterday’s abysmal performance
And I struggle with those pre game quoting an easy win for us by a few guys als
Have you actually been watching us lately ?
No structure to the team
What are our tactics ?
What is our game plan ?
Why if Griff and Ajeti are fit for 45 mins, can they not start
( Griff been in squad thus passed 3 games, and played 85 mins in a bonce game through the week)
I am still struggling, with facts pointed out yesterday – 11 touches of the ball inside our opponents box yesterday
That is Just Not Good enough for a Celtic team, as champions
Get a grip Celtic, and get after the Ten, become Legends
We are all disturbed by yesterday’s game . Undoubtedly we have problems , but we are only a point behind if we win our game in hand , the ten is not lost, but sad to say it may not be under Neil’s management
The scouser and his coaching staff have the measure of lenny . Our dugout yesterday showed that . If DD and PL have any honest desire to keep us top of the pack .they should be seeking quality replacements for Neil and his staff as an urgency before its too late . To lose this league could mean financial woe for us and financial bonanza for them ,shoe on other foot so to speak . We don’t want no cheap options get a top quality man in .get some quality replacements for the guys who may not want to be with us . But although Neil has maybe been found out ,we should all remember what the guy has done for us , and give him the respect he deserves .
stupid question but if Lenny doesn’t do the coaching then can anyone enlighten us on who does when it comes to tactics /formation/defence/attack etc , I know we have a dedicated goalkeeping coach and couple of nutrition and sports science guys but who is dealing with the most important issues.
TIMBHOY2
People say quite regularly we have a better squad of players. Many of the same people say Slippy’s pish.
It can’t be both. Either they have better players or a better coaching team.
I personally think it’s the latter.
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 18TH OCTOBER 2020 1:10 PM
Their business model depends on them selling season books.
So, no fans allowed next season* and Celtic have won 10 in a row, how many season books do they sell?
They have no financial reserves to fall back on. They are barely living hand to mouth.
* On which note, are odds on meteor strike starting to shorten?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/covid-reinfections-to-be-expected-as-virus-spreads-say-government-scientists
seriously does anyone know the first team coaching staff apart from
NL first team manager ( who doesn’t do coaching)
JK first team asst. manager
GS first team coach
SW goalkeeping coach
so if that is it who the hell is organising the team
DESSYBHOY on 18TH OCTOBER 2020 12:56 PM
CHAIRBHOY on 18TH OCTOBER 2020 1:03 PM
He seemed to be explaining to Gerard what was happening on the pitch. A bit like Father Ted talking to Dougal.
They will have learnt from last year when they were in the driving seat – they will drop less points this season as a result.
I don’t think our players are as good as we think they are and i don’t think sevco’s players are as bad as we think they are.
NOTTHEBUS on 18TH OCTOBER 2020 1:09 PM
‘ DD wealth is incomprehensible .’
###
And his vanity?
JK probably is a decisive factor in tactics, team selection etc. If that is the case, then it is a big part of the problem.
PS
Let’s not forget
The Morelos slap, and kick out at Duffy
None of our players would get away with this
Over to you FtSFA & FtSPFL
I counted 5 yellow cards for sloth yesterday norriem – the hunentators were trumplike talking about it
If sevco win the league, which is a distinct possibility, and they qualify for the champions league group stages they will spend every penny on strengthening their team.
We had £40m in the bank at the end of last year.
Lawwell job is to make sure we qualify for the group stage. Failure to achieve this objective should have resulted in him losing his job.
These are dangerous times for our club.
PS
Let’s not forget
The Morelos slap, and kick out at Duffy
None of our players would get away with this
Over to you FtSFA & FtSPFL
imo that’s the least of our worries.
Ernie, cyclical reinfection is expected with this virus – as with other known human coronaviruses – when it becomes endemic. We just don’t know the cycle or the health impact. We know that it happens, we don’t know if it happens at a scale or impact that will be significant.
Elsewhere, Sevco has been a hand-to-mouth operation since 2013. The current strategy is to stabilise that, wean it off the shareholders’ tit, and achieve cash equilibrium. Covid of course will have an impact on the plan, as will other influences, but the plan seems fairly well conceived, and isn’t reliant on a single outcome to deliver it.
RC @ 1:15 PM,
The point is, no one does. When Celtic sold the Rodgers manager and coaching set up to Leicester City, they replaced an excellent four man team with one person – Lenny.
Each of those four that went to Leicester were outstanding in their field, Lenny doesn’t come close to any of them, in a particular expertise.
As you say, the only place where we kept our expertise was the goal keeping coach and we can thank him for his work with Big Fraser Foster as our success last season was dependent on that.
Every player has got worse, our formations have got worse, our tactics have got worse. As a result the team is not motivated and the dressing room morale is through the floor.
Anyone who thinks this can change has not being paying attention or are still on the deludemol…
Hail Hail
What do you mean, who does the coaching? They come on cqn and check out what is being suggested on here then pick the team and tactics accordingly…
Don’t they?
Longer message but here goes –
Starting 11 Celtic, then appearances.
Barkas 9 Welsh 3 Duffy 9 Ajer 89 Frimpong 21 Brown 385 McGregor 186 Laxalt 0 Ntcham 82
Elyounoussi 18 Klimala 11 Average appearances 73
Them
McGregor 269 Taverneir 182 Goldson 74 Helander 16 Barisic 48 Arfield 66 Davis 199
Kamara 42 Barker 12 Morelos 100 Kent 59 Average appearances 97
Start to remove the most experienced players and the average goes Us 43 Them 80
Us 27 Them 67 Us 19 Them 52 Us 10 Them 45.
Jock Stein said ” There is no substitute for experience ” – argue with him.
As a post script Anthony Ralston has played 53 games on Scottish soil,
That’s more than Barkas, Welsh, Duffy, Frimpong, Laxalt and Klimala put together.
A massive reason for yesterdays performance and result.
weebobbycollins on 18th October 2020 1:38 pm
What do you mean, who does the coaching? They come on cqn and check out what is being suggested on here then pick the team and tactics accordingly…
—————
I dont think anyone on here ever gets close to guessing what wonderful formation/players Lenny is going to come up with from game to game
MARKIEBHOY on 18TH OCTOBER 2020 1:43 PM
What’s your rationale for the performances in November and December last year against them? Because yesterday was a continuation of that, so safe to say we can rule out the above explanation.
CHAIRBHOY on 18TH OCTOBER 2020 1:37 PM
agree
watched a documentary lately on the background staff at some of the EPL teams and the amount of fine detail on the opposition team and individual players was frightening and how they would set up and play on the day was unbelievable , a truly professional footballing experience , imo we lost all that the day BR and his crew left and we have replaced them with a vastly inferior set up .
Rolling Stone
Thanks for the reply.
I’m not saying it’s the only explanation but it should be considered.
It’s like the people who want to sack NFL yet his record is superb as
manager.
They have a ( pretty ) settled team and we don’t. Even without Covid.
How many sevco players would you have if choosing a combined 11?
By my reckoning, 3 are stick ons just now. Both fullbacks and Kent.
We laugh at Tavernier, but neither frimpong or Elhamed have held down the RB slot for us. Frimpong looks out of his depth at this level notwithstanding the, frankly,excellent job Sevco did on him yesterday.
Their left side is much stronger than ours, although our new LB may redress that.
There is also the question of SB, do you think any Sevco fan would choose him in their combined 11? Yesterday Davis was spraying passes around the park, while we were avoiding giving the ball to Scott as he can’t do anything with it. We are a man down in midfield because of this.
Aside from that, I would take every one of our players.
I recognise Ajer is getting it tight for his passing. But compare and contrast- how many times did Goldson or Helander have to run the ball out of defence or play line breaking passes?
Sevco’s setup means that doesn’t happen. Whereas ours, particularly with pressure applied from Sevco and SB’s inability to act as playmaker, meant that our CBs nearly exclusively had the ball to try and start plays.
We have better players and squad, but our management team isn’t even average, it’s poor.
Sevco’s management team is good. It’s the reason they have taken a rag tag group of players further in Europe than we have managed since MON.